Institutional management strategies and upscaling of digital literacy programmes in public primary schools: The moderating role of school leadership quality

Barsulai Kipkorir Titus, Pamela Ochieng & Joyce W. Gikandi

Volume 7 Issue 2, June 2026

Abstract

The Kenyan education system is going through a radical change with the implementation of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) and the Digital Literacy Programme (DLP). Full DLP integration has yet to be realised in majority of public primary schools even after government distribution of digital devices, especially in Elgeyo Marakwet County where about 69.3% of the schools have not done so. This study investigates the effect of staff training and provision of digital literacy resources on the upscaling of the DLP in public primary schools in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya and explores how the quality of leadership moderated these relationships. Concurrent triangulation design, a blend of quantitative and qualitative, was adopted. Public primary schools (n = 345) were the target population with a total of 120,929 eligible respondents. A random sample of 28 Head Teachers, 28 BOM Chairpersons, 307 Teachers and 384 Learners with four QASOs being purposely sampled. Thematic analysis was conducted for qualitative data and descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (SPSS. v.23) were used for quantitative data. The findings showed that the staff training (β =0.378; p < 0.05) and the provision of the DLP resources (β =0.595; p < 0.001) were important when upscaling DLP. Importantly, both relationships were significantly mediated by the quality of school leadership: Training × Leadership (β = 0.218; = 0.001) and Resources × Leadership (β = 0.267; = 0.000) with the complete model explaining 81.2% of the variance of DLP upscaling (R 2 = 0.812). Investments in teacher professional development, digital infrastructure, and school leadership development are critical for meaningful DLP upscaling in resource constrained public primary schools and need to be done strategically and persistently.

Keywords

Author information & Contribution

Barsulai Kipkorir Titus. Corresponding author. PHDED. School of Education, Mount Kenya University, Thika, Kenya. Email: barmakenya@gmail.com

Pamela Ochieng. School of Education, Mount Kenya University, Thika, Kenya.

Joyce W. Gikandi. School of Education, Mount Kenya University, Thika, Kenya.

"All authors contributed to the conceptualization, data collection, analysis, and writing of this manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the final version."

Disclosure statement

Funding

Institutional Review Board Statement

Ethical clearance was obtained from the Mount Kenya University Institutional Research Ethics Committee (MKU-IREC) prior to data collection. Written informed consent was obtained from all adult respondents (head teachers, teachers, and QASOs). Parental/guardian consent and learner assent were obtained for student respondents. Participants were informed of their right to withdraw without consequence at any time. All data were handled as confidential, with no personally identifiable information disclosed. The study adhered to the NACOSTI guidelines on research involving human participants.

Data and Materials Availability

AI Declaration

Notes

Acknowledgement

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Cite this article:

Titus, B.K., Ochieng, P. & Gikandi, J.W. (2026). Institutional management strategies and upscaling of digital literacy programmes in public primary schools: The moderating role of school leadership quality. International Journal of Educational Management and Development Studies, 7(2), 126-147. https://doi.org/10.53378/ijemds.353361